Kevin Dwyer Fields home of Nepean FA outfit St Marys Band Rangers FC has benefitted from Penrith City Council’s recent capital works program.
Penrith City Council have completed amenity upgrades on several football fields over the last 12 months with females being the big winners.
With the female game growing year by year, the impact of the world game was evident during the recent Matildas two-match international friendlies against the U.S.A where crowd attendance records were broken showcasing the popularity for the women’s game.
The facility at Kevin Dwyer Fields saw an upgrade to the existing change rooms, with change rooms painted, new bench seating and most importantly lockable showers and toilets for females.
Female friendly amenities provide a safe and inviting space for females to prepare for competition and training without the need to change in cars.
Change room provision trends are very much based on historical male sport requirements many councils like Penrith City are now renewing amenity buildings to ensure amenity buildings are future proofed for all genders.
Also included in the upgrade was a new accessible toilet and additional storage.
“Increasing the level of club storage provision was a key priority that associations identified during the consultation process for the NSW Football Infrastructure Strategy,” said Football NSW Manager – Government Relations, Funding and Infrastructure Daniel Ristic.
“The NSW football facilities audit highlighted that the amenity buildings in Penrith City Council were not female friendly, with only 11% of football amenity buildings classified as female friendly/gender neutral.”
The project came to a grand total of $480,735, with Penrith City Council contributing $357,235.
The NSW State Government through the Community Building Partnerships program provided $73,500 with the Sport Australia Community Sport Infrastructure Grant contributing $50,000.
The ability to partner with all three levels of government highlighted the success of this project.
Football participation in the Penrith LGA has increased by 13% since 2018, highlighting the popularity of the world game even with two years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
